neumu [ cinematronic ]




	The Devil's Backbone
	Guillermo del Toro Marisa Paredes, Frederico Luppi, Fernando Tielve 2001		Mexican director Guillermo del Toro is at home with horror. "Cronos," his disturbing, novel renovation of the vampire film, served as his springboard to making "Mimic," an American-financed, English-language monster movie that pitted Mira Sorvino against giant cockroaches in the subway tunnels of New York City. Now, del Toro has returned to his native tongue with an atmospheric, creatively visualized ghost story set in an orphanage on a barren plain during the latter stages of the Spanish Civil War. When his father goes off to battle, Carlos (Fernando Tielve) is abandoned at the spooky Santa Lucia School, where a treasure trove of gold is rumored to be hidden. The disconsolate Carlos has trouble fitting in with the other kids, who push him around, and coping with the regimen and the brusque staff, particularly a spiteful young groundskeeper. Ratcheting up the misery, a spectral presence starts to bedevil Carlos. It's violent, but deliciously haunting. With Marisa Paredes and Frederico Luppi.